An iconic mechanic, The Car Wizard determined he wished to ‘retire’ after opening the hood of a Chevy Silverado EV truck that his buddy Tyler Hoover brought to him.
The electrical pickup could seem like a conventional Chevy truck from the outdoors, however beneath the hood was a really completely different story.
The Car Wizard was confronted by a dense maze of wiring, electronics, and cooling methods that made the Silverado EV look significantly sophisticated to work on.
And once they lastly received the truck onto the elevate, they found it was nearly too heavy for the gear in the storage.
Why the Chevy Silverado EV is a nightmare for a mechanic
The Silverado EV belongs to YouTuber Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage, who purchased the former Hertz rental for $37,000 with 16,000 miles on the clock to his mechanic buddy, The Car Wizard.
It value significantly lower than the truck’s nearly $80,000 sticker worth when new, and Hoovie stated the extra he drove it, the extra he favored it.
The enchantment is clear, with round 450 miles of sensible vary, four-wheel drive and roughly 500 horsepower.
But when Hoover took it to the Car Wizard to see what was hiding beneath, the mechanic wasn’t precisely blown away by the design.
“That’s a complicated bowl of spaghetti electric pickup truck,” Hoovie admitted once they lastly received underneath the hood.
Getting to some of the parts wasn’t notably simple both, as a result of an enormous quantity of bracing and metallic had to be eliminated earlier than he might attain what’s beneath.
The Silverado EV makes use of GM’s devoted Ultium electrical platform, reasonably than taking a gas-powered pickup and changing it to electrical energy.
The similar primary vibe underneath the hood can be present in automobiles like the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ.
Underneath the hood, Hoovie and the Wizard discovered electrical motors, thick wiring bundles, cooling gear, air-conditioning parts, brake {hardware}, and a tiny 12-volt battery.
The Car Wizard additionally identified that many of the parts have computer systems constructed into them, probably making repairs rather more costly.
“Everything’s going to be two grand, five grand, eight grand,” he stated, pondering of all the components as ‘stupid expensive’ and tough to repair.
And then got here one other drawback: the truck was significantly heavy.
The Silverado EV was estimated to weigh round 8,500-9,800 kilos, which put the store’s 8,500-pound elevate proper at its restrict.
Eventually, they received it raised, however the Car Wizard admitted he was nervous about placing such an enormous electrical truck onto the gear.
Hide your fingers (and your hotdogs)
The teardown additionally revealed one notably weird drawback with the Silverado EV’s powered latch.
Hoovie wished to see whether or not the truck would detect one thing caught in the latch, very similar to the notorious Cybertruck finger checks, as a result of when he was a child, his Grandpa received his fingers caught in the hood of a Chevy pickup.
But as an alternative of risking their precise fingers, the pair used some sizzling canine sausages as a result of they mimic fingers.
The sausages had been positioned into the hood and the Silverado EV’s powered latch mechanism was closed, but it surely didn’t cease.
“Holy moly. That would be some severely broken bones right there,” he stated.
The latch continued to crush down on the sizzling canines, with the pair discovering that it appeared to haven’t any intention of releasing the stress and the sausages even broke off inside the latch, displaying what would occur to some fingers.
Things grew to become much more regarding when the latch then refused to open.
“Okay, so you’ve amputated my fingers,” they joked as they struggled to launch it.
Eventually, they discovered a small emergency guide launch that might be pulled twice to pop the latch open.
“So, in case of emergency, there’s a little gray pull right there,” the mechanic defined. “You pull it twice and it should pop.”
The discovery led to a fairly simple conclusion from the pair: don’t strive the check along with your precise fingers.
There had been lots of positives underneath the truck, although.
The Car Wizard was impressed by its beefy suspension parts, large springs, substantial brakes and massive battery pack, which is greater than 200 kWh.
Unlike some of the extra sophisticated high-end electrical vans, the primary Silverado EV Work Truck additionally makes use of typical suspension reasonably than air suspension and doesn’t have four-wheel steering.
For Hoover, that’s half of the enchantment, as a result of ‘it reminds [him] of an old school heavy-duty Chevy truck’.
But the mixture of its huge weight, densely packed electronics and probably costly parts might give some mechanics lots of complications as these vans become older.
After seeing what was hiding beneath the hood, the Car Wizard may need had good purpose to begin desirous about retirement.
Key specs: The Chevrolet Silverado EV
Powertrain: Dual-motor all-electric AWD
Top Speed: 112 mph
0–60 mph: Under 4.5 seconds (RST trim with Wide Open Watts mode)
Drive Modes: Normal, Sport, Tow/Haul, Off-Road (trim dependent)
Range: Up to 492 miles (Max Range Work Truck)
